Two former Super eagles coaches, Clemens Westerhof and Bonfere Jo have been so much in the soccer news of recent, rightly or wrongly!
Following the interview Westerhof granted the Vanguard yesterday, a former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Kashimawo Laloko, has expressed disappointment that the Dutchman is thinking of staging a return as coach of the Super Eagles 26 years after.
Westerhof took Nigeria’s senior national team to its first ever World Cup in USA in 1994 and also won Super Eagles second Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Tunisia same year.
When Laloko spoke with The Guardian yesterday, he stated that he never saw Westerhof as a coach, but rather as an organizer and accredited his success to his affinity to then former military Vice President, Augustus Aikhomu.
“As far as I am concerned, Westerhof is not a coach but an organiser. He was lucky that during his time as the coach of the Super Eagles he had direct contact with the late Aikhomu, and things worked out well for him. He cannot get same treatment now.
“These days, we don’t have people with the kind of interest in football shown by Aikhomu back then and that is the truth. Westerhof and his former assistant, Bonfere Jo, are birds of a feather and they are not good enough. Westerhof is even worse than Gernot Rohr.”
Laloko was equally upset that Rohr keeps making excusses saying there are no good players in the Nigeria Professional Football League.
“The problem I have with Rohr is how many league matches does he watch that will make him to condemn them? During my days as the technical director of NFF, I insisted that the Eagles should be made up of 25 per cent home-based players and the board agreed. And we had so many of them who later played for the country.
“So, how can you now be telling me there are no good players in our league again? In the countries he has coached what and what did he win there? I do not know why people cannot do things the right way.
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“We are not doing the right thing, that is just the truth. But we keep on messing up ourselves unnecessarily.”
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
